


Aftermath

by wordsaplenty



Series: The Most Brilliant Stars [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Blind Keith (Voltron), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-02-17
Packaged: 2019-03-10 17:50:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13506699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordsaplenty/pseuds/wordsaplenty
Summary: Extended Scenes:These are the extended/missing scenes from my fic The Most Brilliant Stars.It took about three weeks for Keith to finally accept what had happened to him when he was tortured by the Galra.  It took three weeks and a host of extremely stubborn paladins to help Keith cope with what had happened.





	1. Week 1: Shiro

Day 1

Keith woke up all at once and in a panic. Something was pinning his arms down, something sturdy and cold and hard. Keith opened his eyes to try to see what it was that was holding him down, but he was only met with darkness. His breathing sped up as his panic increased, what was going on? Where was he? 

He pushed at the metal thing that was holding him down, thankfully it moved and Keith was able to tumble to the ground. Once on the ground he crawled till he bumped into a wall. Slumping against it Keith pulled up his knees and buried his face in them trying to get his breathing under control so he could figure out what was going on.

Just as his breathing was finally settling into a steady rhythm something dropped across his shoulders.

“Keith?”

“Shiro?” 

“You’re safe. You’re back on the castle ship, in your room.”

“Can you turn on the lights?” Keith asked. “It’s really dark in here.”

Keith felt Shiro stiffen beside him. “Keith, do you remember what happened?”

“What do you mean? Turn on the lights Shiro, this isn’t funny.”

“Keith, do you remember being taken prisoner? You and Pidge were held together.”

Keith pressed his hands against his head which was suddenly throbbing. Flashes of memories burst through his mind. Being held by the Galra. Pidge’s scared face as he was taken away. Being tortured by the Galra. The knife moving closer and closer to his face.

“I remember,” Keith said, shrugging Shiro’s arm off his shoulder and standing up. He walked forward with careful steps till his foot hit what he hoped was his bed. Feeling around he dropped down onto the bed, burying his head in the pillow.

“Keith?” Keith knew what Shiro was trying to ask without him having to elaborate, but he was in no mood to talk.

“Go away Shiro.”

Shiro sighed. “Keith…”

“I said get out of my room Shiro and leave me alone,” Keith shouted.

There was a pause then the sound of the door opening.

“I’ll be back later Keith.”

Keith moved so his back was to the door. He heard Shiro sigh again before the door closed and he was alone.

Now that he had remembered what had happened he couldn’t stop the images from flashing through his mind. Which seemed especially cruel as he would never see any new images, would never see anything else ever again.

Later that day, Keith had no way of telling how long, Shiro knocked on his door. Keith ignored him. He didn’t want to talk, he didn’t want to think, he just wanted to forget.

“Keith, I won’t stay if you don’t want me to, but I brought you some food. Hunk worked really hard on recreating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and he did a decent job.”

Keith almost continued to ignore Shiro, but then his stomach growled, and he realized that if he told Shiro to just leave the food by the door that he was more likely to step on it.

“Come in,” Keith called out, sitting up on his bed.

He heard the door open and close and could make out the sounds of Shiro moving closer.

“Here you go,” Shiro said seconds before a plate was gently placed in his hands.

Shiro sat down next to him. “So like I said, Hunk tried to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We’re the guinea pigs so we’ll have to let him know if he was successful or not. Instead of bread it’s kind of these two cracker things. The peanut butter was made from that nut thing Lance found awhile back and the jelly is made from the weird berries that Allura swears are the tastiest in the universe.”

While Shiro was describing the food Keith was carefully feeling along the plate. He found the cracker thing and took a tentative bite.

“Shiro?” Keith asked.

“Yeah Keith.”

“Have you tried your ‘sandwich’ yet?”

Keith heard Shiro take a bite, it must have been a bigger bite than Keith’s though because he could hear it hit the plate when Shiro spit it out. 

Keith started giggling and soon he heard Shiro join in. When they finally calmed down Shiro said, “I guess I should have tried it before bringing it to you. Hunk will be disappointed.”

“It’s not that bad,” Keith said, “Remember the rations they gave us at the Garrison, for that survival exercise, where they sent us out to live in the desert.”

“Oh don’t remind me. The taste was stuck on my tongue for a whole week after we got back.” Shiro laughed. 

Keith laughed and leaned back against the wall by his bed. He felt Shiro do the same.

“Hey Keith?”

Keith tensed up. “I don’t want to talk about it Shiro. Can’t I just ignore it for a while?”

“Sure Keith, whatever you need. But eventually…”

“I know,” Keith interrupted. “I know.”

 

Day 3

Keith hadn’t left his room since he had exited the healing pod. Shiro visited him every day bringing new food from Hunk. Each time was a new attempt at recreating an Earth dish   
when only a few tasting anywhere near what they were supposed to taste like. 

He also hadn’t acknowledged his, situation, since that first day. Shiro hadn’t either which he was completely thankful for. 

Instead Shiro filled the days with stories. Both stories from their shared time at the Garrison and from before they met. 

"Have I told you about the first time I met Pidge?"

Keith shook his head.

"Well, decided it was time I meet his younger sibling. I thought, knowing Matt, I was prepared for anything. What I wasn't prepared for was to turn a corner and find Pidge in a screaming match with one of the older cadets."

"What were they yelling about?" Keith asked.

"Apparently Pidge had been walking down the hall toward their father's office when they overheard a cadet say something scientifically incorrect so of course they had to stop to correct them. The cadet didn't take too kindly to being corrected by a 'little kid'."

Keith laughed, "That was definitely a mistake."

"You know that, I know that, but oh goodness the cadet had no idea. Matt was fine with letting the screaming match continue but..."

"But you just had to step in and put a stop to it," Keith interrupted.

"Yeah, well, I did the cadet a favor!"

 

Day 6

"I was so drunk I was positive the world was ending. I kept trying to call 911 thinking that they should know the sky was falling but Matt kept stopping me. At one point I wrestled him to the ground shouting, "Stop, the world needs to know the sky is falling."

Keith was rolling around on his bed, unable to control his laughter.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up but I'd like to see how you do after what seemed like a million shots. Matt even had footage of the whole thing which he held over my head forever. But I got him back. I got footage of the time he tried to woo a girl by doing the chicken dance, also something that happened after copious amounts of alcohol. I guess the moral of my story is don't get so drunk you do crazy things."

 

Day 7

 

“This one time, Matt was convinced that Iverson was actually an alien sent to Earth to infiltrate the Garrison and take it down by being a total ass to the cadets.”

“What did he do?” Keith asked.

“Well, Matt being Matt decided to set up an intricate monitoring system. He even created this tiny robot spider to spy on Iverson. Well, suffice it to say Iverson is not an alien but is terribly afraid of spiders.”

Both of them burst into laughter. Keith could only imagine the look on Iverson’s face. But then he realized what his mind was doing and went quiet knowing that his imagination is all he had anymore and was the only place he’d see.

“You ready to get out of here?” Shiro asked.

“Nope,” Keith said.

“Keith…”

“Don’t Keith me Shiro. I’m not ready to face everyone yet. I’m not ready to face not being a part of this team anymore so just, let me do this.”

Shiro leaned over and pulled Keith so he was leaning against his side. “Well when you’re ready to leave just know that you are still a part of the team, no matter what.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge and Hunk have lots of ideas for things to help out Keith. They just don't always work out the way they thought they would.

Day 8

There was a knock on his door earlier than usual, at least based on Keith's internal clock it felt earlier. He honestly wasn’t sure about time anymore. 

“Come in Shiro, what crazy food do you have this morning?”

The door opened but Shiro wasn’t the one to answer.

“Come on Keith, time to get up, we’ve got work to do.”

“Pidge?” Keith asked, surprised. He hadn’t talked to any of the other paladins for a week.

A hand grabbed his and pulled him to his feet. “We’re on a tight schedule Keith. Hunk can only help us out for so long before he has to make lunch so every second counts.”

Keith was so surprised that he allowed Pidge to drag him out of his room and down some hallways before they entered a large room.

“Keith!” A loud voice boomed in front of him and, before he had time to protest, big arms were wrapping him up and pulling him close.

“Okay okay put him down before you smother him. We’ve got a lot of things to try in a short time so let’s get to work.”

“Sorry,” Hunk mumbled sheepishly as he set Keith back on his feet. 

Before Keith could respond Pidge grabbed his hand, led him further into the room, and pushed him into a chair.

“First things first,” Pidge said, “Put this on your wrist.”

They dropped something into his lap. When he felt it Keith thought it felt similar to a watch. Hunk must have seen his questioning look.

“It’s a watch but not just any watch. Lift it to your ear and it’ll tell you the time. Walk around and it’ll beep to let you know if you’re about to run into something.”

“Try it on, try it on!” Pidge insisted.

“They’re a little impatient,” Hunk said.

Keith felt a little overwhelmed but did as he was asked. He placed the watch on his wrist and held it tentatively to his ear. 

“IT IS APPROXIMATELY 9:00 AM BASED ON EARTH TIME,” the watch screamed in his ear.

“Quiznak!” Keith cursed, moving his wrist away from his ear as quickly as he could.

“I can fix that!” Pidge yelled over the watch that hadn’t stopped shouting the time. They came over and started fiddling with the watch. Finally they were able to turn off the yelling.

“Okay, so, it may need some work but that should be good for now. Wanna try walking around to see if the spatial awareness feature is working?” Pidge asked.

“Um….” Keith was honestly wishing that he was back in his room.

“Just stand up and walk straight ahead. At some point along the way there is a chair. The watch will let you know when you’re about a foot away.” Hunk said, placing a hand on Keith’s shoulder, helping to position him for the start of his walk.

“Fine but after this we’re done for the day,” Keith grumbled.

Pidge started to protest but Keith heard Hunk shush her.

Keith started walking forward as instructed. He kept waiting for the beep from the watch. It didn’t come. He kept walking. His shin knocked into what he assumed was the leg of the chair the watch was supposed to warn him about. As soon as his leg connected with the chair the watch on his wrist started to vibrate and then started to shock him. 

He reached over and tried to yank the watch off, shocking his other hand in the process. It was stuck. 

“Pidge?!?! Get it off!” Keith yelled waving his arm around and wincing as the watch continued to shock him.

“Stay still…stop moving Keith I need to be able to reach your wrist to be able to help you!” Pidge exclaimed as they started grabbing at his arm.

Keith held his arm out and felt Pidge grabbing at the watch. Or attempting to grab at it, unfortunately it shocked her too and she was unable to get it off.

“I got this, I got this, Pidge step back,” Hunk yelled. 

Keith heard Hunk pressing various buttons on something and suddenly the watch stopped shocking him.

Pidge finally got the watch off but Keith couldn’t bring himself to say anything to them. He had been dragged from his room for this? Honestly he was beyond annoyed at the whole situation.

“Hunk you really had to do a localized EMP? You couldn’t have thought of any other way to get it off?!?! Why didn’t you find rubber gloves or something to cut the watch off? Now we won’t be able to do any other tests on with our other gadgets!” Pidge wailed. 

“Right, right, I should’ve just let you two keep getting shocked while I searched around. It was the fastest way to solve the problem Pidge!” Hunk yelled back.

They weren’t even anywhere near Keith now if his hearing was to be trusted. Both of them were talking as if he wasn’t even there anymore. Like he was just their experiment, and just like with the faulty gadgets, he no longer served a purpose. 

“But what can we do now? This was the only thing we had ready to test! I guess maybe we could start working on…”

“Enough!” Keith yelled tired of this back and forth as if he weren’t even there. As if he were useless.

“Keith, what…” Pidge started only for Keith to interrupt them.

“I’m going back to my room. You clearly don’t need me here.”

Keith started walking in what he hoped was the direction of the door but in his anger he really didn’t care, as long as he was away from Hunk and Pidge. Which meant that he promptly ran into what felt like a table and ended up sprawled on the floor.

“Woah Keith are you okay?” asked Hunk, placing a hand on Keith’s shoulder.

“Let go of me!” Keith yelled, shuffling backwards to get away from the hand that had come out of nowhere. Standing up he tried to get his bearings but with both Hunk and Pidge remaining silent he had no way of knowing where anyone or anything was.

“I am not going to stay here to be your science experiment. Just, tell me where the door is and leave me alone!”

“Keith, you’re not just here for us to experiment on.” Pidge said, sounding hurt but Keith didn’t care.

“Really, that’s not what it feels like to me. I’m not some lab rat for you to experiment on as you see fit. I won’t ask again, where is the door?”

“I’ll lead you there,” Pidge spoke up, “Will you let me hold your hand?”

Pidge sounded so dejected, as if they were prepared for Keith to lash out again. Pidge’s voice struck a chord with Keith, his anger slowly dissipating only to be replaced with regret.

Instead of answering Keith simply held his hand out in the direction he had heard Pidge’s voice. A small hand grasped his and soon he was being led through the corridors back to his room. They got to the door and Pidge let go of his hand.

“I’ll just leave you here I guess. I’m sorry again Keith, for everything.”

Keith could hear Pidge’s footsteps as they started walking away.

“Pidge?” 

“Yeah Keith?” 

“You wanna come in for a bit?” He hoped that they would accept his peace offering. The more time he had to think the more he felt guilty for blowing up at them.

“Sure.”

They made their way into his room, both finding a spot on the bed before sitting in awkward silence. 

“I’m sorry,” Pidge said eventually.

Keith sighed, “You have nothing to be sorry for. I’m sorry.”

“Can we just agree that we’re both sorry but that we also both shouldn’t be sorry because there’s nothing to be sorry for? I feel like we’re about to fall into a sorry trap where we just keep saying it back and forth and nothing ever actually gets done.”

Keith laughed, “Yeah okay I guess you’re right.”

They sat in silence, but this time it wasn’t awkward, it felt comfortable. 

“So, I know today wasn’t a very good start, but Hunk and I really do have a lot of ideas of different devices we can make to help you out.”

Keith stiffened but then forced himself to relax. He didn’t like it, but he needed to start to accept that he could use some help.

“What kind of devices? I’m telling you know, if I get shocked again I’m never letting you near me again.”

“What? I would never shock you again,” Pidge said, sounding scandalized, “But, say that maybe you got a tiny, not a shock, like an electricity poke that would be okay right?”

“It really doesn’t matter what I say does it? You’re still gonna drag me to your lab.”

“Pretty much,” Pidge said and Keith could picture the pleased grin she had on her face perfectly in his mind.

“Could you just, remember to talk to me? Don’t ignore me or just treat me like an object to experiment on. And I’m probably going to be grumpy the majority of the time so, don’t be offended if I snap every once in a while.”

Pidge’s hand gently gripped his, lacing their fingers together. “I promise I’ll do my best to not get stuck in the science of it all. And you are definitely allowed to be grumpy right now. Honestly it’d be weird if you weren’t. And if you want to talk, about what happened or how you’re feeling now, I’ll listen.”

“Thanks Pidge.”

“Not a problem Keith.”

 

Day 10

Pidge stopped by every morning, dragging him to their make shift lab. Then he listened to them and Hunk throwing out all sorts of technical jargon and had to endure them putting all sorts of contraptions on his head. All he knew was that they were trying to map his brain and figure out a way to connect the goggles to his brain. He honestly couldn’t tell if they were making progress or not but Pidge and Hunk both seemed optimistic.

And Pidge, they remembered their promise and talked to him throughout, explaining exactly what was going on even if most of it went over his head.

“So, right now we’re taking another scan of your brain, trying to figure out exactly where we would need to make a connection to transmit images directly to your brain. The hope is we can do everything remotely, transmitting images directly to your brain, mimicking sight. What may happen though is that we might have to put a small device into the brain itself to transmit the images to.”

“Brain surgery, you’re talking about brain surgery. Is anyone here even qualified to do that?” Keith asked. He may trust Pidge with his life but brain surgery was kind of pushing that trust.

“Well…”

“No, not happening.”

“Fine, but as soon as we find someone qualified to do it then I think this could really work!”

“Yeah, well you’ve said that about that watch of yours and it has yet to stop shocking me.”

“Electrical pokes! No shocking happening here, just pokes!”

 

Day 12

 

“So, the watch is for sure this time, 100% functional,” Pidge said as they placed it on Keith’s wrist.

“Forgive me if I don’t believe you,” Keith mumbled.

“Try it out!” Pidge said, and Keith could just feel how they could barely contain their excitement.

Keith held the watch up to his ear and it gently said, “The time is currently 10:04 am.” 

Keith smiled, “So far so good!”

He started to walk forward, ready to get an ‘electric poke’ when he got too close to something.

“Wait Keith…”

Keith ran directly into a chair and toppled to the ground. The watch however hadn’t shocked or electrically poked him at all.

“Well, I guess that’s an improvement, no poke,” Keith said, holding his arm up to Pidge who he could hear hovering above him.

“So, about that. Hunk and I decided to just make the watch function as a watch and we’ll circle back to the spatial reasoning factor later.”

“You couldn’t tell me that before?” Keith asked, standing back up and glaring in what he hoped was the right direction.

“I tried to tell you, not my fault you’re impatient.”

Keith smiled, happy with his new watch knowing that Pidge and Hunk would keep working on different things for him, even if they took a while to perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully that was okay. Next up Hunk! Comment if you like.


	3. Cooking Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk needs a sous chef. Who better than Keith? Will Keith start to realize that his life isn't over just because he's blind?

Day 12

Shiro had stopped by with breakfast followed by Pidge dragging him to the lab to get more scans done of his brain. Keith thought he would be free after that to just stay in his room. He was wrong.

The knock on his door wasn’t completely surprising seeing as it was almost lunch time which meant that Shiro was probably bringing him some new concoction of Hunks.

“Come in.”

The door opened but it wasn’t Shiro.

“Heya Keith!”

“Hunk,” Keith said surprised, “Does Pidge need me back at the lab?” 

Keith gripped the sheets of his bed, suddenly feeling self-conscious at how his room must look. He’d never had much stuff in his room so it was never an issue of keeping it clean but he honestly hadn’t tried to keep it neat since, well just since. 

“Nope, I was hoping you’d join me in the kitchen today!”

“What?” Keith asked, once again surprised. Why would Hunk want him to join him in the kitchen?

“Yep. Come up, no time to waste we gotta go now if we wanna have everything prepared for lunch.”

Keith was grateful that Hunk kept his distance, it sounded as if he was still just standing in the doorway. Keith stood up and made his way to the door. He’d gotten really good over the past week or so navigating his small room and he could easily make it out his door without bumping into any of the other furniture. Sadly this skill didn’t extend past the confines of his room.

He reached the door and Hunk started to chatter on about the different types of food they had gathered from the last planet. The pair made their way down the hallways to the kitchen. Hunk’s constant chatter allowed Keith to walk by his side without needing to hold his arm, for which he was very grateful. 

They reached the kitchen and Hunk led Keith over to one of the counters.

“Alright, so this right here, this is your station,” Hunk said, after getting Keith situated in front of the counter. “We gotta go over some kitchen rules before you can get started. Rule number 1, listen to the chef, that’s me. Rule number 2 speed is unimportant, slow and steady is better than rushed and shaky. And finally, rule number 3, this is supposed to be fun so like, relax and just go with it. Any questions?” 

“Um, what is it you think I’m going to be doing here? I thought I was just here to keep you company while you made lunch.” Keith was very confused. Hunk obviously had a plan but it didn’t seem like he understood that Keith really couldn’t do anything anymore, except sit for Pidge’s experiments.

“You’re going to be my sous chef of course!” Hunk said excitedly.

“I don’t know what that means,” Keith grumbled. 

“It means you’re my assistant. You’re going to be in charge of some of the prep work. Which means you’re going to do a lot of stirring and chopping.”

“Chopping? Right, I think you’re forgetting some pretty major things here Hunk. I’m not exactly going to be any good at chopping up anything except maybe my fingers.” 

Keith turned and started walking back toward where he thought the door was only to be stopped by a gentle yet firm hand on his arm.

“Nope. That’s where you’re wrong. Once I teach you the proper technique you’ll never cut yourself in my kitchen.”

Hunk sounded so sure that Keith wanted to believe him. But a part of him felt like this was just another place for him to realize that his life would never be the same.

Hunk led him back to the counter. He placed his hands on either side of a cutting board.

“Feel around, I want you to know how much room you’re working with here.”

Feeling a bit silly and infinitely grateful for the fact that Lance wasn’t around to make fun of him Keith ran his fingers along the edge of the cutting board. It was a bit bigger than he had thought it would be.

“Great, now to teach you the surefire way to never cut yourself while cutting anything. Hold out your hand.”

Keith held out his hand and the handle of a knife was gently placed in it. Closing his hand he felt the weight of it settle reassuring in his palm. He’d missed the feeling, the weight, of this tool in his hand. 

“Okay, so I placed this weird vegetable thing we found recently, it’s kind of a mix between a cucumber and a pumpkin, honestly I can’t even make that up. It’s weird looking but super tasty. Anyway like I was saying I placed the pumpkumber on your cutting board. I need you to grab it with your other hand.”

Keith did as he was asked. He felt the lumpy vegetable. It had ribs like a pumpkin but was long and cylindrical like a cucumber. 

“This is the most important cooking advice you will get in your life. To make sure you don’t cut your fingers you need to bend them so the knuckles are basically almost touching the thing you want to cut. You can basically use your knuckles to guide where you’re going to cut. Remember rule number 2, go as slowly as you need to. There’s no rush, especially since this thing is just being added to the salad I’m working on.” 

Keith did as Hunk had told him. He tried to visualize the pumpkumber in his mind. He bent his fingers and placed the blade so the flat of it touched his knuckles. Then he made his first slice.

“Awesome, keep slicing it just like that. That size is perfect. I should’ve known you’d be a natural at this!”

Keith smiled and kept working. It was slow going. He worried that Hunk would be annoyed but he just kept up his chatter, describing everything he was doing in the kitchen. 

When Keith finished the pumpkumber he was given a pot of soup to watch over and stir. Sometimes Hunk brought over a bowl of stuff to add to the pot, allowing Keith to add it in. 

Lunch was finally finished and before he knew it Keith was walking into the dining room.

The other paladins were already there, along with Allura and Coran. When Keith got into the room, holding the salad he’d helped make all the chatter and conversation stopped.

Keith had been so caught up in helping Hunk he hadn’t even realized that he was being led to the dining room. The dining room that he had avoided since…since it happened.

“Yo, mullet. We saved you the seat at the head of the table. Like two steps in front of you,” Lance called out somewhere in front of him.

Keith debated with himself about what to do. Should he drop off the food and leave or should he actually sit down with the team he’d been avoiding for over a week. 

He’d been so relaxed with Hunk in the kitchen. He’d kind of forgotten how good it felt to work. It felt even better because he had been able to do it on his own. He had been so scared he’d be completely useless, and in many aspects he still was, but this, working with Hunk, allowed him to do something for his team.

Keith chose to sit down…and it was like nothing had changed.

From them on, after Hunk and Pidge were done poking and prodding his head Hunk would drag him to either help make lunch or to get something to eat, forcing him to sit with the paladins and enjoy a team lunch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up is Coran! Once again hopefully this was okay, I didn't write a full on team lunch because I really just wanted to focus on Hunk this chapter. Comment if you like!


	4. An Angry Klanmuirl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coran just wants some company while working to fix the castle ship. If that means telling Keith of his amazing exploits as a younger man then so be it.

Day 15

After spending the morning with Pidge poking around his brain and Hunk teaching him how to make what was essentially spaghetti Keith was ready for a break and some time to himself. Which is when Coran appeared.

“Keith my boy, come on come on, we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Coran grabbed his arm and started pulling him off in some unknown direction.

“What?” Keith asked, not exactly happy about being carted off somewhere against his will.

“I have a bit of castle maintenance that I need to work on that I may have been putting off but can’t put off any longer or else the Princess will be quite angry.”

“So what do you need me for?” Keith asked, not really seeing why Coran would need him to tag along.

“Why, to keep me company of course! It can get quite dull, fiddling around with all the contraptions and circuitry and whatnot. What do you say my boy? You willing to keep me company?” Coran asked, continuing to pull Keith along to wherever it was he needed to work.

“Sure, I guess,” Keith said, though it didn’t really seem like he had much of a choice. 

Eventually they made it to whatever room it was the Coran needed to do work in. Different from Pidge and Hunk who took the time to explain what they were doing, Coran instead told stories about things that supposedly happened in his life.

“Have I told you about the time I faced off against an angry klanmuirl?”

Keith could hear Coran digging around in some electrical panel, fiddling with the wires inside, hopefully fixing whatever it was the Princess wanted him to fix.

“No, you haven’t told me that story yet.”

“Ah, well you are in for a treat. I’m sure it’s not hard for you to believe but I was quite the strapping young man. Strongest around. You needed someone to wrangle some gazurgas and I was your man. Need someone to stare down a wet chuper, I was your man.”

There was an ominous crackling noise and then a screech and a curse from Coran.

“You okay over there?” Keith asked.

“Fine, fine, everything’s fine. Now as I was saying…”

The crackling returned, as did the cursing.

“Do you need any help?” Keith asked, not really sure what he could do but getting more and more worried that Coran had no clue what he was doing and was going to get hurt in the process.

“Hmmm, well, I don’t want to inconvenience you my boy, but maybe you could keep two of the wires separate for me while I work on the panels behind them.”

Keith got up from where he was seated and moved over to Coran.

“Right my boy, hold out your left hand, there’s a good lad. Hold this,” Coran handed him a thick wire. “Now your right hand if you please?” Keith did as he was told and felt as another wire was placed in his right hand.

“Now, and this is very important number 4, do not let the wires touch. You’ll get quite the jolt if you do.”

“Got it,” Keith said, listening as Coran started moving things around in the panel in front of them. 

“Now where was I with our story?” Coran asked.

“Umm, you were gonna tell me about when you faced off against an angry camel?”

“Ah, yes yes yes, an angry klanmuirl. There I was, the only one around who could wrangle the angry beast. It was only me and him. I was all stood between this monster and an orphanage.”

“An orphanage?!?!” Keith asked, truly beginning to question the truth behind this story.

“Quite right, quite right. I had been volunteering at this orphanage you see. One of the young ones had wandered off into the woods unsupervised and angered a klanmuirl. After making sure the young one made it back inside the orphanage safely I stood between the beast and the building.”

“But, if everyone was inside, why did you have to face off against the klanmore?”

“Klanmuirl. And you’ve obviously never faced one in real life. They can tear through walls as if they were made of cloth. And if there is one thing I cannot stand it is a beast threatening the lives of hundreds of innocent orphans!”

“Hundreds?!?!” Keith asked, completely convinced this story was entirely made up.

“Yes yes, now to the good part. Oh, move half a step to your left please, there’s a good lad, thank you. Now where was I? Oh yes, I was the only thing standing between this beast and the poor, innocent children. I had no weapons on me, just my wits and my strength. I found a think piece of wood, from one of the trees and broke it in two across my knee. The klanmuirl charged but I wasn’t afraid. I waited till the last possible moment and then stepped to the side. Just as the beast passed me I was able to stab my stakes through its side. A single blow was all it took to fell the beast.”

There was silence for a moment before Keith realized Coran was waiting for some sort of reaction. Unsure of what to say in response to that, very unlikely, story Keith simply chose to clap, forgetting about the wires he was holding. 

The shock that ran through his body was brief but incredibly painful. Keith could hear Coran cursing while he was just flat on his back, convulsing from the shocks of electricity. Coran must have done something to shut down the current because the electricity stopped and Keith’s body soon settled down, only twitching every once in a while.

“Number 4, Number 4?!?!?! Are you okay my boy?” Keith felt Coran hovering over him.

“Coran?”

“Yes Number 4?”

“I think I’m done helping you for the day.”

Coran laughed nervously. “Yes, yes, I can definitely understand that my boy. Ummm, do you think we can keep this little incident from Number 1?”

Someone cleared their throat somewhere behind Keith.

“Ahhh, Number 1, how good to see you! I was just telling Number 4 here that he was free to go and that I could handle repairs on my own.” Coran laughed nervously. 

“Right,” Shiro said skeptically, moving over and helping Keith to his feet.

Shiro led Keith from the room, just as they were about to leave Keith turned and called out to Coran.

“Thanks for the story Coran. Maybe we could do this again tomorrow, just without the electrocution.”

Keith smiled to himself as he heard Shiro’s angry growl and Coran’s sputtered excuses.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ended up being a little sillier than I meant but with Coran it's hard to write anything to angsty, he's just full of fluff and silliness.
> 
> Next up Lance!
> 
> Comment if you like!


	5. Ready to go again?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is about to make a ninja out of Keith if it's the last thing he does.
> 
> Honestly it probably will be the last things he does cause Keith is a freaking fast learner.

Day 16

“Alright my turn!” Lance suddenly shouted after everyone had finished eating lunch.

Next thing Keith knew his arm was grabbed and he was being dragged through the hallways.

“You’ve been spending far too much time with everyone else. It’s my turn, mullet. And I know just what we should do.”

Keith wasn’t sure how to feel about this but so far his spending time with the others had actually been pretty nice. You know, if you didn’t count all the times he’d been electrocuted over the past week. When he was with the other paladins, no, when he was with his friends, he didn’t have time to think about how everything had changed. 

“Alright, here we are!” Lance said, voice echoing in the space he had led them to.

Any good feelings Keith had had were beginning to fade away as he started to realize where he’d been led.

“Where are we?” Keith asked, hoping he had kept the anxiety he was beginning to feel out of his voice. 

“The training deck! Great right? I thought we could…”

Keith had heard enough. He turned around and started to walk out the room not caring where he went as long as it wasn’t there.

“Woah, Keith where are you going?!” Lance called out, moving to keep pace with Keith.

“Away from here,” Keith managed to grit out from between his teeth.

“But I thought you’d be itching to get back to training.”

Keith shoved Lance away from him and couldn’t help the satisfaction he felt when he heard Lance thump into something, a wall hopefully.

“What…” Keith didn’t let Lance finish his thought. He pushed toward the voice, forcing Lance against the wall again.

“How dare you throw this in my face? Do you think this is funny? Did you just bring me here so you could laugh at poor, pitiful Keith? Can’t do anything anymore so let’s just taunt him.”

Tears started to form in Keith’s useless, blind eyes but he blinked them away, not wanted to add to Lance’s already low view of him.

“Is that really what you think of me?” Lance asked.

Keith just glared back toward Lance, not knowing what to think.

“I wasn’t throwing anything in your face. Knowing you, you could still kick my ass in hand to hand, even now.”

Keith continued to glare toward where he heard Lance but he was starting to wonder if maybe Lance wasn’t trying to be mean or shove his loss in his face. 

“Dude, I’ve watched like every ninja show and movie ever and there’s always a blind dude who kicks ass. Your eyes might not work but your ears do, so we’re going to start working on improving your hearing.”

“What did you have in mind?” Keith asked, still wary but Lance had been right, he was itching to get back on the training deck.

“Yes!” Lance cheered, grabbing Keith’s arm and dragging him back to the center of the training deck.

“So I had Pidge put together a couple of things for us. Hold out your hands.”

Keith did as he was told and some smooth and cylindrical was placed in his hand. Feeling along the object he found it was a long staff.

“Like I said, we’re gonna train your ears. Your goal is to try and hit me with the staff. Me, I’m going to be wearing these things, bangles I guess we can call them. Pidge put them together for us. I'll wear them on my wrists and ankles and they'll jangle whenever I move. I’m gonna be trying to hit you too by the way so be prepared.” Lance put on the bangles and moved around. Keith could clearly hear pieces of metal moving against each other.

“Alright Mullet, you ready to get your ass handed to you?”

Keith bounced the staff up and down in his hand, testing the weight and the balance. With a smirk he swung the staff to the left and was pleased to hear a shriek from Lance who he’d just smacked in the chest.

“Dude, not fair. I didn’t say go yet!”

“I thought we were training. The Galra aren’t going to say ‘go’ when we face them in a fight.”

With that the chase was on. Lance moved around the training deck while Keith listened and followed. At first it seemed like, despite how much noise Lance was making, it was Lance who was landing the hits. But soon Keith started to get the hang of listening and reacting quickly, landing a number of hits against Lance. 

“Alright, alright, that’s enough for today,” Lance gasped after over an hour of training. 

Keith caught his breath, not even trying to stop the smile that stretched across his face.

“So, do you think you’ll be up for some more training tomorrow?” Lance asked as they made their way out of the room.

Keith thought for a second before smirking and replying, “I think the real question is, are you ready for training tomorrow?”

Keith continued walking forward while Lance mumbled about creating a monster behind him. 

Day 17

Lance removed the bangles from his ankles, making it harder for Keith to pinpoint exactly where he was. He found himself listening extra carefully which made his reaction times slower meaning he was getting hit a lot more frequently than he was hitting Lance. It was frustrating but Keith wasn’t going to give up.

For the first time, in a long time, it felt like he could breathe again. It felt like he could have this part of his identity back and he wasn’t going to let that slip away from him again, regardless of how grueling it was listening to Lance’s taunts.

Day 20

Lance had removed all the bangles from both his wrists and his ankles. This had seemed daunting days ago but now, Keith was ready. 

Swinging out with his staff he heard yet another, satisfying shriek, as he connected with Lance. 

Smirking down at Lance where he lay with Keith’s staff pressed into his chest.

“Ready to go again?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And last up will be another Shiro chapter!
> 
> Comment if you like!


	6. Never Give Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro helps Keith to relearn his way around the castle, with a surprise run in with an old friend at the end of the tour.

Day 21

“Alright, it’s time you relearned how to get around on your own,” Shiro said from his spot next to Keith on his bed. 

“You know Pidge and Hunk have given up on making the watch work to let me do that,” Keith muttered, leaning back to rest his head on the wall next to his bed.

“Yeah, no, you don’t need some fancy watch to help you get around. You just need to create a new map of the castle in your brain. Come on, up you get!”

Begrudgingly Keith stood up from his bed.

“So, I know you know the setup of your room by now so I’ll meet you outside the door,” Shiro said before all but running out of the room.

“What, Shiro!” Keith yelled. Hearing no reply he resigned himself to the fact that Shiro wasn’t going to budge on this. Keith walked easily to the door of his room and stepped into the hallway.

“So Keith, I was thinking we should figure out the way to the dining room and kitchen first. That way we don’t have to keep fetching you at meal time,” Shiro said teasingly.

Keith just glared and mumbled under his breath that no one needed to ‘fetch him’ for anything. 

“To start off I was thinking you could keep your hand against the wall, that way you’ll know when other hall ways branch off. We can also keep track of how many steps it takes if you want.”

Keith gently rested his fingertips on the wall to the right of his door and started walking in that direction, knowing that the dining room was off that way, but without the visual cues he couldn’t quite remember how many hallways he needed to pass before turning off to the right.

Shiro walked beside him, reminding Keith of what was behind the doors and down the hallways that they passed. After passing by two hallways they finally turned to the right and followed the hallway down all the way to the dining room.

“Oh heya Keith!” Hunk said, somewhere off in front of him. “You here to help out with dinner?”

Keith wanted to say yes. He’d really been enjoying his time in the kitchen with Hunk. But Shiro had a point. He wanted to be able to get around the Castle ship on his own and to do that he needed to map it out in his mind and practice.

“Sorry Hunk, not today. Shiro’s dragging me around on the grand Castle tour. I hear this Castle has many amazing rooms.”

There was silence for a beat, enough so that Keith began to worry he’d said something wrong or that his response had come off as too flippant. He didn’t need to worry though.

“Oh yeah, I’m sure Shiro is a great tour guide. Have you made your way to the training deck yet?

“Nope,” Shiro replied, “That’s our next stop though.”

And they were off again, following the same hallway in reverse but taking the first left they came across. After a few more lefts and a right they made their way to the training deck. Instead of going inside they made their way up to the observation area where Pidge was speaking through the intercom to Lance.

“Alright Lance, take two steps forward then one step to your right,” Pidge said.

“Is Lance trying to make his way through the maze again?” Keith asked.

“Yep,” Pidge replied.

“Is he still terrible at it?”

“Yep.”

Keith stepped forward and felt around till he found the intercom.

“Turn to your left and take two steps.”

“Alright, wait Keith, why, ahhhhhhhhh” Lance shrieked as he walked into the electrified maze.

Everyone in the observation room began to chuckle at Lances undignified screams.

“What, mullet! Why would you do that?” Lance yelled.

“You didn’t have to listen to the bl… to me Lance. That was your choice.” Keith turned around and walked out of the room, Shiro followed close behind.

“Where to now Shiro?”

“This one is a surprise, but pay close attention okay?” Shiro said, sounding a bit anxious for some reason but Keith wasn’t worried, he’d trust Shiro with his life so he’d trust him to lead him around the castle.

This time they went down many hallways, with so many turns that Keith was having trouble keeping them straight in his head. But he followed Shiro’s instructions and paid extra close attention to the route they were taking.

Eventually they walked into what felt like a huge room, their steps echoing through the great room. 

“Shiro, where are we?” Keith asked, fearing he already knew the answer.

Shiro kept quiet but gently placed his hand on Keith’s elbow and led him further into the room. 

Shiro eventually stopped, letting go of Keith’s arm and stepping behind him but staying close.

“Don’t be mad Keith. Someone’s really been missing you and I thought it was time you two were near each other again.”

Keith was about to turn around and leave when he heard the movement of a giant. Something huge lowered down right in front of him. He could feel air rush against his face, almost as if the machine, the creature in front of him was breathing.

“Red,” Keith whispered.

Red seemed to huff again, air pushing his bangs away from his forehead. Keith leaned forward so that his head was leaning against Red, his lion. 

So many feelings rushed through Keith but what he chose to focus on was the feeling of comfort that was permeating the air.

Tears streamed down his face as he leaned against Red, his arms coming up in a semblance of a hug as he latched onto this huge beast.

“I’m can’t see Red,” he whispered to his partner, “I can’t, I’m blind.” Keith admitted aloud for the first time since the incident. 

Red continued her comforting waves as Keith broke down completely for the first time since he’d exited the healing chamber. 

Eventually his tears ran out and Keith stepped back from his lion.

Shiro stepped forward then, gently placing a hand on Keith’s shoulder.

“Are you ready to go?” Shiro gently asked.

“Yeah, yeah I am.” Keith said.

The pair walked in silence all the way back to Keith’s room.

Once inside Shiro said, “I hope I didn’t overstep here Keith. I know Red has been missing you and I thought you were probably feeling the same way.”

Keith thought before answering, choosing his words carefully. “I think it was something I needed to do. To face what had happened, the fact that I’m blind now. You’ve all worked so hard, these past few weeks, showing me that I can still do things, that I’m still useful and capable. I thought seeing Red would remind me of everything I’d lost, and I was right.”

“I’m so sorry Keith, I didn’t take you there to throw it in your face,” Shiro said, sounding upset.

“No, no, I know you didn’t Shiro. But it’s a truth I needed to face. I can’t pilot Red anymore. But everyone’s made me realize that there’s still stuff I can do to help out. I guess what I’m trying to say is thank you Shiro. For not giving up on me.”

“Never Keith! I will never give up on you.”

“I know,” Keith smiled, feeling sad about everything that had happened but also excited for all the new things he was able to do now, with the help of the other paladins, with the help of his friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, there you have it. Two updates in two days cause why not.
> 
> Comment if you like!

**Author's Note:**

> This fic should be about 6 chapters long and gives a lot more details to the quickly glossed over scenes at the end of The Most Brilliant Stars. We'll see how Pidge, Hunk, Lance, Coran, and Shiro all work to get Keith back to where he was before his capture.
> 
> Next Time: Hunk and Pidge drag Keith from his room to experiment, I mean, help him out.
> 
> Comment if you like!!


End file.
